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Jonathan Crane
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Jonathan Crane, also known as the Scarecrow, is a psychiatrist turned psychopath. Obsessed with the mind's power over the body, Crane has developed and weaponized a toxin that targets the fear center of the brain, causing the victim to experience intense paranoia, prolonged panic and trauma from their worst fears. He is currently serving as the Head of the Criminal and Intensive Care Wards at Arkham Institute in Gotham City. Personality Jonathan Crane is a disturbed psychiatrist with a morbid fascination with fear and the mind's power over the body. A brilliant psychologist and skilled chemist with a flair for the theatric, Crane has perfected a compound that preys on the mind's innate fears, turning it against itself as it is forced to endure its worst fears. Bullied and tormented in his youth, Crane grew up with feelings of powerlessness and repressed aggression and sexuality, with both religious and social persecution. Pushed to the breaking point, Crane sought to make those who tormented him pay by exploiting the power that the mind holds over the physical; by using the power of fear, he could turn the tables and overcome bigger, stronger opponents. Crane is very skilled at this sort of manipulation. Because of how he was raised, Crane possesses an innate need to feel in control and to have the power in any given situation. Neurotic and paranoid, Crane disikes disorder. In times of high stress, Crane tends to increase the frequency and intensity of his experiments; during such times, he'll keep victims alive for days or weeks, alternating the dosage of his compound. This puts the exact time of death in his hands. In all, Crane gets a rush from being Scarecrow, and a feeling of power and control that he finds it difficult to achieve otherwise. By all accounts, Crane is a brilliant psychologist. He is highly skilled at treating mental illness, specializing in unusual illnesses (such as Disassociatie Identity Disorder or Schizophrenia), phobias and criminal insanity. Despite his own hang-ups and moonlighting as a masked psychopath, Crane is a skilled, serious psychologist who is passionate about what he does. History The Crane Plantation The Crane Plantation was once a well-known, shining estate in southern Georgia. A grand mansion that grew vast amounts of fine grains--especially corn--and cotton, the mansion itselt was multiple stories, spacious and boasted the finest accomidations of the day. The highly religious Crane family even built a fine chapel on the property where slaves and blacks were always allowed to worship along with white citizens (the family is particularly proud of this progressive part of their history, despite being one of the last familieis in America to release their slaves). Especially throughout the 1920's, the Crane Plantation was almost the pinnacle of class in the American south. But the Great Depression took away much from many people, even the Cranes and the plantation began to falter, growing dark, empty and cold; a masoleum to the former excess of the roaring 20's. Once the star of Atlanta, the Crane Plantation decayed, rotting away to a skeletal shadow of its former glory. It was here that at sixteen years old, Joanna Crane, the black sheep of the family, conceived a child out of wedlock with an unknown father (such was the volume of her partners). Joanna experienced much shame, humiliation and belittlement for her unwanted pregnancy. When the baby was born, Joanna died during childbirth. Edith Crane, Joanna's grandmother and family matriarch, wanted to bury the spindly, anemic baby in the backyard in order to preserve the family name. However, something stayed her hand that night and as a result, she elected to raise the baby herself, naming him "Jonathan" after her son, who had died in infancy. Early Life Jonathan was a fearful, quiet child who spent more time observing and investigating his surroundings than anything else. His upbringing was strict and Edith was a cruel taskmaster; the slightest bit of misbehaving would result in being sent to bed without supper or lashes with a belt or whip-like stick or a riding crop. As Jonathan grew older, he was homeschooled and was severely punished for poor grades. He spent many nights hungry and was put to work around the house during the hot, Georgia days. Edith, being very old school, southern-style religious, she believed in hard work. Jonathan had a hard time keeping up with the load, due to his anemia and asthma and other issues, which only made Edith lash out at him more. Jonathan was often berated by his great-grandmother, who called him worthless, a bastard and evil; the hard work would drive the devil out of him. She would make him attend chapel every night on the plantation's church (they were the only two in attendance), where she would pray for God to save them from destitution. She would also flog Jonathan and make him repent of his sins after confessing each out loud. Whenever he would step out of line or misbehave or fall behind on his work, Edith would drag him out to the now-dilapitated chapel, where she would lock him inside overnight, or sometimes days. The thing about the chapel was that a massive murder of crows had taken up residence in the old rafters of the church, and the crows were very territorial and violent, as far as crows go. So, when Edith locked Jonathan inside, she dressed him as a scarecrow; she would stuff a burlap sack with eyehole over his head and effectively make him wear rags (no shoes) and stuff his shirt full of corn, which would ensure the crows would flock down and attack him en masse. Jonathan's one reprieve was reading. A voracious reader, he absolutely ate up every book he could get his hands on. The problem was that books were banned in the house. The estate's library was off-limits, and being found inside would always result in "Time with the Birds". It was worth the risk, Jonathan thought, and he would often steal a handful of books and sneak out into the old corn fields for hours at a time to read. When he reached the 9th grade, Edith's health declined somewhat and he was enrolled in public high school, where he was relentlessly teased by bullies, who saw him as an easy target due to his love of books, social awkwardness and lithe frame. Boys would throw bottles and rocks at him and girls were always creeped out by him. They would even tie a rope to his ankle and hang him upside down from a tree until an adult would notice, which could take hours. This helplessness drove sad longings and wishes for revenge, but fear and inability to defend himself always kept him from acting out on such delusional impulses. The Power of Fear Throughout high school, he had a crush on Veronica Crawford, a beautiful, popular girl in his class who has always been kind to him. Even after Edith called him a pervert and locked him in the church for being a sexual deviant when he tried to talk to her about girls, Jonathan's affections persisted. During the 12th grade, Jonathan gathered up the courage to ask her to Homecoming. She agreed, much to his delight. When he arrived, howeer, she had stood him up. He confronted her that night and she apologized, and as a way of saying sorry, she dragged him into the janitor's closet, where she proceeded to kiss him. This was only a prank, however; she pulled down his pants before opening the door to the delight of onlookers, who took pictures that they posted all over the internet. This was the last straw. He was sick of being teased, sick of being tormented by the idiot masses of his high school and he was sick of being powerless. It was his turn now. Over the next six weeks, he systematically terrorized both Veronica and her boyfriend, Mark Campbell; he put threatening fliers into their lockers, scrawled cryptic messages on their bedroom walls and bathroom mirrors, leaft messages on their answering machines and otherwise vanadalised and psychologically terrorized them. Everything culminated when he cut the power at Mark's house, murdered his dog and left the carcass in the jock's bed. He was caught near the house and he proudly confessed to the crime. He WANTED everyone to know what he did and he wanted them to know that if they crossed him, he would do it to them. People looked at him differently after that. They didn't tease him anymore. They were afraid of him. Scarecrow While he couldn't be tried as an adult, Jonathan was suspended from school (he would have been expelled if not for Edith's influence). Edith was furious for the shame Jonathan had brought to the Crane name, and she berated him as usual, berating him and locking him in the church for three entire days without food. Locked in the chapel with the crows, Jonathan didn't cower like he normally had. Edith's fear tactics didn't hold as much sway anymore, now that he had tasted that power himself. On his 18th, Jonathan visited his grandmother in the dead of night during a horrible thunderstorm, dressed in the Scarecrow clothes she had always made her wear. Riding crop in hand, he beat Edith savagely and strangled her until she passed out. Then he dragged her by her ankle out of the house and threw her in the church, where the crows descended on her, picking her bones clean. Higher Learning After high school, he burned the plantation to the ground and left Atlanta, where he attended Princeton University thanks to several very generous scholarships. The college experience was a breath of fresh air as Jonathan was free to be himself and pursue his own calling. He decided to major in psychology and minored in chemistry, owing to his fascination with fear and the power that the mind holds over the body. He worked hard to master both subjects, which he quickly did seeing as he had no social life. He practically flew through the work, taking a full load every semester, even summer classes. He graduated at the age of 22 years old, at which point he began pursuing a career in psychiatric medicine. During his time in school, he was the star pupil of Professor Hugo Strange, an esteemed psychologist. This relationship would prove fateful. Fear Toxin After graduating, he began working at the Princeton Hospital of Psychiatric Wellness, focusing on dangerous individuals and cases concerning unusual psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. He also began intensive study into fear and phobias and their effect on the body. Based on research started with Professor Strange back at Princeton, Crane began developing a drug that targeted the parts of the brain that controlled the fear response. The goal was to stimulate the areas enough that it would mimic the effects of a phobic attack. The results, however, were better than expected: the drug absolutely paralyzed the victim with fear, often iducing a heart attack. His work on the drug began taking up most of his time, enough that he decided he needed a steadier job with more predictable hours if he was ever going to perfect his drug. So, the moment he earned his Doctorate, he accepted a position as Head of Psychology at the University of Washington, in Seattle; the youngest in the history of the school. Here, he began experimenting with his drug in earnest, abducting people without families or vagrants and using his compound on them to record what happened. He began modifying the compound to be stronger or weaker, depending on what he wanted. The effectes started to be tailored and more predictable. He even earned a grant from the Department of Defense. During experiements, he donned a burlap sack over his head, taking on the identity of the Scarecrow in order to protect his identity in case one of his victims ever escaped or survived their "treatment". Young Justice In the 2012 school year, Crane had a young Clark Kent, Diana Prince and Wally West in his class. Through a series of events, the three of them were exposed to his fear compound but somehow survived, alerting the publlic to his activities. Soon, his entire operation was in jeopardy. So, he donned his Scarecrow costume in an attempt to silence the whistleblowers. He was stopped, however, by the efforts of a group of costumed individuals, most notably the Batman. Crane spent a brief period of time in prison, but was released and all charges dropped when the prosecution was unable to find any evidence that Crane was even connected. Crane was issued a public apology and things went relatively back to normal. Arkhman Institute In early 2013, Crane was contacted by his old mentor, Professor Hugo Strange, who had recently come to become Warden and Head Physician at the newly-opened Arkham Institute in Gotham City. Eager to get out of Seattle and resume his experiments, he accepted. He began working with the criminally insane, quickly gaining a reputation in the psychology world. In secret, he continued working on his compound on the patients (eventually developing an aerosol form). Notable Accomplishments ---- Notable Victories ---- Relationships with Others Harleen Quinzel Jonathan has developed a crush of sorts on his intern, Harleen Quinzel. He admires not ony her beauty, but her sense of humor, her brilliant mind and her tenacity. She's ambitious and compassionate and sexy, and while it may be inappropriate Crane is crazy about her (no pun intended). He plans on asking her out the second her internship ends. Powers and Abilities Mundane Training '--Academics:' Crane is obscenely intelligent and excells in any intellectual subject. '--Chemistry:' Jonathan is an exceptionally gifted chemist. He was able to successfuly design, improve upon and update his fear compound on his own. '--Fear:' Jonathan is a master of fear and knows nearly everything to do with it. '--Investigation:' Crane is a skilled investigator, and is especially gifted as a mortician. '--Psychology:' Jonathan Crane is one of the brightest psychological minds in the country today. Paraphernelia '--Fear Compound: '''A drug that stimulates the fear portions of the brain, Crane's compound causes intense paranoia, hallucinations and prolonged panic. The compound contains trace amounts of coral snake venom as a muscle relaxant, making resistance difficult. The compound comes in a pill form, a liquid form (usually administered via syringe) and an aerosol form. This compound is fatal in high-enough doses. '--Scarecrow Mask:' Originally just a burlap sack, the mask has been modified to include a gas mask that filters out all impure chemicals in the air, including his own toxin. Weaknesses '--Mental Illness:' Crane suffers from undiagnosed narcissistic disorder and sociopathy. '--Chiroptophobia:' Crane suffers from a fear of bats, a trait he unknowingly suffers alongside his hated nemesis, Batman. Notes --Crane's faceclaim is Ben Whishaw. --Crane's first appearance in this universe was in Young Justice S01E01. Trivia --Crane's favorite books are the ''Dune ''series. --Favorite television series is a three-way tie between ''Doctor Who, American Horror Story and Scrubs. --Enjoys live theater and improv comedy. --Loves birds of all kinds, especially carrion birds. --Allergic to erythromycin (a common antibiotic). --Favorite singers include Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, The Ramones and Led Zeppelin. Also, despite his disdain for his upbringing, he has a fondness for music from the 1920's and 1930's. Category:Male Characters Category:Supervillain Category:Arkham Institute Category:Neutral Evil Characters Category:Psychology Category:Native of Earth-Prime Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Gotham Knights Category:Human